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Re-excavation of cultural deposits at Švédův stůl cave in the Moravian Karst, Czech Republic

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: • In-tact cultural deposits found at a Neanderthal site thought to be completely excavated. • New excavation confirms survival of in situ deposit dating to Middle – Upper Palaeolithic transition. • Radiocarbon and OSL results provide the first absolute dating of this Neanderthal site. • Faunal and aDNA analyses increase assemblages for understanding paleoenvironmental histories of the Moravian karst. Over the last 150 years archaeologists in Europe have targeted caves and rock-shelters. This has both enriched our knowledge of Palaeolithic cultures, and significantly reduced the number of sites with pristine, unexcavated cultural deposits dated to the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic (MP-UP) transition available for study today. In this paper we report the discovery of in situ sediments which preserve artefacts dating to the Neanderthal- Homo sapiens transition period, at a site previously assumed to have been excavated in its entirety. Our results demonstrate the utility of re-investigating previously excavated sites and provide further support for hominin presence in the Moravian Karst during the MP-UP transition. In situ sediments with excavation potential still remain at this site. As well as their archaeological potential, these remnant deposits, which span the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 and possibly earlier stages, have considerable potential for enhancing our understanding of the palaeoenvironmental history of the Moravian Karst.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105449
Authors: Amy M. Way, Ladislav Nejman, Philip Hughes, Lenka Lisá, Duncan Wright, Miriam Nývltová Fišáková, Marjorie Sullivan, Piotr Moska, Nigel Antony Spooner, Petr Škrdla, Ondřej Mlejnek, Nicholas Skopal, Petr Neruda, Zdeňka Nerudová, Antonín Přichystal, Miroslav Králík, Zdeňka Sůvová
Institutions: The University of Sydney, Australian Museum, Australian National University, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Nuclear Physics Institute, Masaryk University, Silesian University of Technology, The University of Adelaide, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, Brno, University of Hradec Králové, Moravian Museum, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,910
Funders: Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Ministère de la Culture, Akademie Věd České Republiky, Ministerstvo Kultury, Masarykova Univerzita, Department of Geological Sciences, University of Alabama
OpenAlex ID: W4415221287
FWCI: 5.143
Cites: 32
Cited by: 1
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